Re: [Marxism] The Left and Support For Islamic Resistance

[Ruthless Critic of All that Exists <ok.president+nbsy@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Steve Palmer <spalmer999@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The reactionaries in Iran say, look the Marxists just want to undermine
> Islam and are doing little or nothing to fight imperialism. Everybody
> loses - women, gays, Iranians.

Using your exact same logic:

If we (Marxists) stay silent about the repression of women and gays in
Iran, then why wouldn't women and gays in Iran say: "Look, the
Marxists just want to undermine the US/UK etc. and are doing little or
nothing to fight our oppression by religious fundamentalists." Thus,
"everyone loses" in the same way even if Marxists follow your
prescribed course.

The only way in which everyone wins, is to do what Shane Mage is
suggesting: speak the truth, call out oppression wherever it occurs,
whether by imperialism from the West OR by homegrown
religious-fundamentalist oppressors in the third world.


>  But Iran and the US are not peers. The world is still divided into oppressed 
> and oppressor nations. The quickest way to advance womens' and gay rights in 
> Iran is stop the US from meddling in the area and threatening Iran, allowing 
> the internal struggle for democracy to develop.

This is a good point, but calling for a stop to US meddling is not
mutually exclusive with articulating our own *Marxist* call for a stop
to the oppression of women and gays by the religious clerics. It is
not an either-or thing here -- one can call for both.

> When Marx was supporting Turkey ('sons of Mohammed'!) against Russia, he was 
> well aware of their national policy in the region, the status accorded to 
> women etc but understood that was not the issue of the moment and didn't 
> waste his breath on public criticism.

Marx lived more than a century ago. We Marxists don't make a fetish
out of what Marx did or didn't. We are guided by Marxism as a method
of critique and struggle, not by Marx-emulation.


> It is also amusing to see how people agonize over *Islamic* resistance not 
> over resistance when it happens to be christian. Christianity can hardly be 
> accused of being progressive on gay and womens' issues!

Of course Marxists call that out too. For example, Daniel Ortega, a
Sandinista anti-imperialist, recently made abortions very difficult to
get in Nicaragua. He did this to make nice with the Catholic church.
Principled Marxists have of course criticized and condemned Ortega for
this act of women's oppression.

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